What’s NEW!? GGS, SPINeRVALS, TRAINING oh my!

Wow it’s been a long time since my last post! Time to brush the dust off!!

First things first…Today, I may have had a lesson in “failure.” It’s not often I don’t “succeed” and it’s a tough pill to swallow.

For the past many months, I have been prepping for my CSCS through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Despite my preexisting knowledge of this field and putting in countless study hours / my best efforts to learn the material, the scientific part of the test still kicked my butt. I am waiting on my test results because I didn’t send my college transcript and CPR/AED info ahead of time, but I have a feeling I will be revisiting the testing center… Ewwww.

So, due to my gut feeling about this first attempt, I referred to the following quote as a positive reminder, pick me up and rational refocus:

“Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.”- Bruce Lee

So, as with anything else, life goes on. I will take the experience of this test day, restrategize my efforts, study some more and go again… (unless of course the results surprise me and state a big fat “PASS” haha.)

On to more exciting news / updates!!

GIRLS GONE STRONG

If you have caught any social media updates from me in the last week, you would have seen the mention of Girls Gone Strong (GGS). GGS is a female strength revolution built and branded by myself, Jen Comas Keck, Julia Ladewski, Marianne Kane, Molly Galbraith, Neghar Fonooni and Nia Shanks (please find all of these women in my LINKS tab above).

The birth of GGS began this past August when myself, Jen, Julia, Marianne, Molly and Nia all met up in Cincinnati to train together, talk shop and be girls (see the recap here) Since then, we have been diligently working to launch Girls Gone Strong and bring women a range of things from training education / information, strength seminars, apparel and a sense of community. Don’t think for one minute however, GGS is simply limited to physical strength. Girls Gone Strong also represents the overall idea of STRENGTH which includes the very important Mental Strength and Strength of Character.

The response we are recieving so far from both men and women is unreal. In the past week, we have accumulated over 2,000 likes on our facebook page including supporters such as Jamie Eason (fitness writer / model), Lori Lindsey (USA Women’s Soccer Team), various male Strength Coaches and of course, the many valuable women!! It fills our tanks and affirms that we have tapped into something that has been missing, needed and wanted! As they say, you don’t know what you’ve been missing until it arrives! We have so much in store for you all come 2012 and beyond. Our website isn’t far behind, but in the meantime, please visit our facebook page to connect, our twitter account or email us at girlsgonestrong@gmail.com

SPINeRVALS with Ray Lewis

Another exciting project that is nearing it’s launch is the collaboration of Ray Lewis and Spinerals (Troy Jacobson) to bring athletes and fitness enthusiasts a 50 minute cycling workout. For my Spinerval experience with Ray and many great athletes, check out my blog post here. Spinervals with Ray Lewis: Vol 1 – No Limits & Vol 2 – 4th Quarter Grind TO BE RELEASED this NOVEMBER 2011. For more information and updates, you can also check out the facebook page here.

TRAINING UPDATES

The past few months have been exciting in pushing new limits and PR’s with training. In various efforts I managed to set new PRs which were very rewarding. My goals were never to reach a particular number with my lifts, but always to improve and to always “be ready.” As many of you know, I battled with a back injury for a few years, so to reach these numbers was not only rewarding from the raw numbers but also in confirmation that I was not only far from “limited” but thriving.

Best back squat to date was 210lbs for 3 reps
Best front squat to date was 165 for 3 reps
Best Sumo DL was 215lbs for 3 reps
Best Sled Push was 500lbs for 20 yards (on set 5)

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I am currently taking some time away from my structured 4 days / week strength program. For the last year, I have been grinding away with progressive programs and I have never missed a training session. I have enjoyed improving my cleans, snatches, overhead squats, front squats, back squats, deadlifts, pull ups, push press, bench press, rows, sled work, sprints, etc. I have seen overall performance improvements over the past year. I am not taking a break from STRENGTH training all together, but rather a break from the design. I am going to give myself a bit of an “off season” and train freestyle for fun, mix in new challenges, new movements and a bit of weekly flexiblity. I am excited to keep certain training aspects consistent while incorporating some new things as well. I will be using myself as yet another experiment with various variables to see what outcomes I find with performance and physique. I will likely go back to the routines I have had, but I am looking forward to this next block and change.

Training and nutrition is a constant evolution and learning process. What works for us for a while, may change, and what we like / enjoy, may change too. That’s Ok. What’s most important is to keep ourselves healthy, strong, injury free and at the end of the day, enjoying it.

So that about does it for updates. I intend to keep my postings more regular once again. As for final thoughts, I will leave you with a favorite quotes that I acquired since I last wrote. It does not have to do with “training” but rather a bigger value: Patience.

“Patience with Family is Love. Patience with Others is Respect. Patience with Self is Confidence.”– Unknown

6 Comments on "What’s NEW!? GGS, SPINeRVALS, TRAINING oh my!"

Hi Alli! -I’m the Kristi that commented on Facebook yesterday about how much I enjoy your blog. Thanks for the udpates! Quite a while back you did a post about Girl Talk. If you haven’t heard of him and you are still digging mash ups for some of your workouts, you might also like Milkman. Found here…….http://milkmanmusic.net/fr_home.cfm. Best of all you can download his albums for free!